- He wrote: “Diabetes And Your Diet” (#1 best seller and International Book Awards 2017, Winner), “How To Be A Healthy Vegetarian” (now in it’s 2nd edition, a best seller and two-time finalist of 2 Indie Book Awards, and awarded finalist in the International Book Awards, and North Texas Book Awards).
You know, I read this kind of content and I just flat out don’t believe this person. It’s not so much the “it’s,” which is inexcusable, it’s the totality of the illiteracy that bothers me: the colon after “wrote,” the combination of italics and quotation marks, the comma after the parenthesis, the comma after “awards,” and all other things; not to mention the fact that the sentence doesn’t make sense. How can this be????
2. This film show how a whole food, plant based diet is the optimum approach to preventing, treating and reversing chronic diseases, as well as addressing the issues of environment and economy.
Geez. The “film show”? And where’s the hyphen in “plant-based”?
3. She is well-versed in the art of health and nutrition, having studied with world renowned Doctors and nutritionists as well as having received certification from various Institutes and Universities including: Certified Health Counselor by Columbia University Teachers College Graduate and Certified Health Counselor of The Institute of Integrative Nutrition, Board Certified Health Practitioner with The American Association of Drugless Practitioners
Where’s the hyphen in “world-renowned”? Why is “doctors” capitalized? (And “institutes” and “universities”!) Why is there a colon after “including”? I mean, who does that? Where’s the punctuation in the list? Ugh!
4. This makes perfect sense because a Coach can help executives see a bigger picture and focus on what really matters to become great leaders of organizations.
Why, pray, is “coach” capitalized?
5. Unlike training, Coaching focuses very specifically on the issues that an executive wants to work through, thus it becomes a speedy way to improve skills and to achieve personal and professional objectives.
Why is “coaching” capitalized?
6. A client approached XYZ to assist them in building their leadership team’s abilities.
Major noun-pronoun problems here: a “client” is singular, so you cannot use “them” or “their” here.
7. A New York born Chinese who has over 30 years experience in the organizational development field, he consults local and multi-national companies on management, sales, and customer service strategies.
New York-born Chinese: you got to have that hyphen; plus, you just got to have an apostrophe after “years”: 30 years’ experience.
8. Good news and bad news – as Training and Human Resources becomes branded as Human Capital, the our function is becoming more firmly aligned with Finance, and we have to sell our value to the CFO.
“…the our function”? Excuse me? And why are all those words capitalized? And, man, oh, man, you need a colon, not a dash, after “news.”
9. For over 15 years his clients have included: Fulton County Schools, the Coca-Cola Company, Harley-Davidson Motor Company, Boeing, McKesson, AT&T, American Express, the University of Pennsylvania the U.S. Army, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and more.
This list is littered with mistakes (and I’m not going to bother to look up all these names), but the main thing is the colon after “included.” It’s so wrong.
10. Feel like you need just a little something to help ‘kick start’ your day, your week, your life?
Double quotes here, people. You’re an American company!
11. Engage your team with solid content, humor, and a fresh perspective that will inspire them to go from “OK” to “Awesome”.
Oh, do I hate this! “Team” is a collective noun, and therefore is singular. “Them” with “team” is incorrect. Plus, in American English, quotes are placed outside periods and commas. There are no exceptions. None.
12. The Soundbite Coach–journalist and crisis communications expert.
What’s that dash doing there? Sounds fishy to me.
13. It all started with his father’s family-owner business.
Um, you mean “his father’s family-owned business”?
14. She published her first book, “Whatever – a 14 Stage Whatever to Grow Your Business” in 2011.
(The “whatevers” are mine.) Okay, first thing: book titles get italics, not quotes. Second thing: you need a comma after “business”—that’s what you call a parenthetical phrase.
15. In 2017, she released her 2nd book, “The Whatever Tune Up – a Whatever Model That Will Whatever the Lives of Small Business Owners”.
Again, book titles in italics, and then there’s that nasty quotation mark-inside-the-period thing. And you say you’re an author?
16. Note: if you are bringing a guest you will need to register them separately.
Noun-pronoun: guest is singular; them is a plural pronoun.
17. He is a recognized thought-leader in the business industry that is called upon to show businesses how to make the best use of social media and marketing.
Baloney. This sentence is a hot mess. And if anyone uses the phrase “thought leader” again, I’m going to puke. (Sorry, mom, I know you’d hate me using that word.)
18. There is a lot of noise out there with these new buzz words “Social Media” and “Social Networking”.
If you say so. To me, they sound trite. And why, why, why are your quotation marks inside that there period?
19. Obsessed with lead generation, he works with Executives, Experts, Academics & Trusted Advisors to leverage their Thought Leadership to become trusted influencers in their industry.
I wish, for all our sakes, that he was more “obsessed” with his punctuation and grammar! Why are these words capitalized? This guy is an idiot!
20. Now as a Bestselling author, and International speaker and business consultant, she has developed a Global leadership program that has impacted audiences and organizations worldwide.
She’s a BESTSELLING author, an INTERNATIONAL speaker, with a GLOBAL leadership program. Yeah, right. I ain’t buying.
21. Her award-winning presentations and unique speaking style holds his audience’s attention and provides teachings to help them achieve personal success.
I love this sentence. It seems the author had a sex-change operation smack dab in the middle of this sentence! And, let’s not forget that audience is a collective noun, so you just can’t use “them” with “audience.”
22. Envision a more secure company Internet with Cyber security expert and Author, So-and-So.
Please stop this capitalization. It doesn’t make you look smart; no, it makes you look stupid!
23. She is one-of 5 in the nation of Department of Defense Certified Internet security Experts who is deaf.
I’m not picking on this person, I’m merely pointing out that there are multiple mistakes in this sentence that really ruin her credibility. The hyphen where you don’t need it, the missing hyphen when you do; the inappropriate capitalization…if you don’t know this stuff, then hire someone who does!!!
24. Sets the tone, for the entire event.
Why is that comma there?
25. Every business needs to establish a connection with their clients.
Every business = singular. “Their” is plural. No can do.
26. Original content, designed to engage your audience on the topics that interest them most – when they want it most.
Audience = singular. “Them,” “they” are plural pronouns. No can do!
27. Our email campaigns are designed, written and published with attention to detail and open rates
Well, I’d like a serial comma after “written,” and forgetting the period sort of ruins the “attention-to-detail” claim, but my main problem is with “open rates,” which, while I know what the author is trying to say, I still find confusing. This is better:
Our email campaigns are designed, written, and published with attention to both detail and open rates.
Well, I don’t like that as much as this:
Our email campaigns are designed, written, and published to generate high open rates.
or this:
Our email campaigns are designed, written, and published to generate one thing: high open rates.
29. Our eBooks and white papers are well-researched, developed and written with your goals in mind.
“Whitepapers” is one word, folks.
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